Self-Checking Online Games for Hands-On Math Topics
Whether you are teaching students to use a ruler for customary or metric measurement, use a protractor to measure angles, plot points along the coordinate plane, or calculate volume, these free online games are a wonderful addition to your hands-on math topics.
Note: While researching to find Hands-On Math Games that students can play online, I discovered a gem! Any games from MathPlayground.com have an option to “Share to Google Classroom” right below the game! This can be an invaluable way to assign a fun way for your students to practice and engage with their math concepts!
MEASUREMENT
In this game, students can measure lines in centimeters and inches. Each unit has 3 levels to play—easy, medium, and hard. I require my students to receive 100% on a level before moving on to the next. My leveled Reading a Metric Ruler and Reading a Customary Ruler where the scales increase in difficulty are perfect complements to Measure It!
THE RULER GAME describes itself as “The Fun and Easy Way to Learn to Read a Ruler!” The “Inch Ruler Game” and the “Metric Ruler Game” are literally the only games on this website! It’s quite the find! Be sure to play around with the settings, where:
For customary, you can set the view of the ruler increments from wholes through sixtyfourths and you can choose what increments the questions ask you about (marks to 1 whole all the way to sixtyforths—I recommend scaffolding from 1 whole, 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch, 1/8 inch, to 1/16 inch for 5th graders; for 3rd and 4th graders, I’d reduce some of those unless students were ready for more!)
For metric, students view a standard metric ruler but are asked to locate measurements in mm and cm units. (I absolutely LOVE the decimal practice with this game!)
You can even change the length of the rulers shown. All of these features may be a little tricky for students, but if you create a guide sheet and tell them which settings you want them to “play” and have them record a score at the end, it can be a really valuable tool for practice with a ruler.
GEOMETRY AND ANGLE MEASUREMENT
Math Playground has three excellent games for having students practice measuring and estimating angles with a protractor. My differentiated, leveled-math brain loves the scaffolding and challenge that I can see in these three interactives: Measuring Angles, Rocket Angles, and Alien Angles.
In MEASURING ANGLES, students are given an angle and must move the protractor to correctly measure the angle. When students enter their answer, they are given feedback on the precision of their measure.
ROCKET ANGLES is a variation of Measuring Angles where students move the protractor to measure the angle that guides the rocket ship’s flight.
ALIEN ANGLES is a fun, challenging game where students are given one ray of an angle and must “guest-imate” where the second ray would fall to create an angle within 5 degrees of a given measure. (This helps the aliens return home!) I’d classify this game as more challenging than the other two!
In SPACE GRAPH JUNIOR from Math Playground , students practice putting numbers on the coordinate plane. (The Coordinates stay in positive X and Y’s and go up to 12 units). In RESCUE MISSION JUNIOR (which I like a little more), students have to input what coordinate the “space pal” is sitting on.
Practice “cube counting” for understanding volume in CUBE PERSPECTIVE from Math Playground.
PLACE VALUE, PATTERNS, MULTIPLICATION
If you want to have your students investigate patterns on a hundreds or 120’s chart, this little Interactive Hundreds Chart from Math Playground is wonderful! In my Multiples Activities for 2’s -12’s, I ask students to analyze the patterns they see in each number family. Students also “count-by” to “Find the Missing Multiple” and figure out “Which Multiple Doesn’t Belong” to the fact family. The Multiples of 2s-12’s can be purchased to play on Boom Learning (self-checking and digital) OR in a Google Slides version for Google Classroom. In both versions, you can download and use the Multiples of 2 and Multiples of 7 for free.
PLACE VALUE PARTY from Math Playground in this game, students count place value blocks and choose the total value. Students can choose from three levels—numbers ranging up to 50, up to 99, and up to 999. I sure wish the game went into higher numbers to use with our older students, but it is great review for those who need it!
I love a good MYSTERY NUMBER activity during my Place Value unit! MYSTERY NUMBER from Math Playground gives students a list of clues to help them figure out a number. They can play with numbers that range in size from 3 to 7 digits (or hundreds to millions. This is a PERFECT interactive activity to differentiate your Place Value practice! (I even recommend pulling these up on an interactive Whiteboard for number talks and bell ringers! )
HELP ME FIND MORE INTERACTIVE MATH GAMES!
I’ve published this blog post as a draft because I want you to be able to use this list of game ideas right away! I still have some searching to do to find MORE really great interactive math games—preferably ones that help students really engage with the math topic, include the use of manipulatives or tools, and focus on the topics that we would typically like to make hands-on. If you have any suggestions, drop them in the comments!